Ask the Fight Doc: Is the UFC doing enough to protect fighters from brain injury?

Mixed martial arts is a far safer sport than most pundits are willing to admit.

However, more can be done.

In our latest “Ask the Fight Doc” installment, MMAjunkie.com medical columnist Dr. Johnny Benjamin discusses what the Ultimate Fighting Championship – MMA’s biggest and most influential promotion – is doing right and what could be done better when it comes to fighter safety, specifically brain injuries.

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Do you think that enough is being done to protect UFC fighters from serious brain injury, and are you at all concerned that MMA fighters may suffer the same fate as many professional boxers? – Anonymous

I am very concerned, my intelligent friend. But let me not get ahead of myself and thoroughly answer your question.

Is the UFC in particular doing enough to protect its fighters? Only time will tell. The future will reveal how many of these athletes suffer mental disabilities related to competition.

But without significant treatment advances, that information will be too little, too late to help those injured ex-combatants. Prevention, early diagnosis and proper management of concussions are vital to the short and longterm health of all – and especially contact athletes.

In my opinion, here’s what the UFC is doing well with regards to brain safety:

The UFC uses the same referees regardless of the location of the event. They don’t try to save money by using random, local refs of unknown ability (absolutely no disrespect intended toward local refs). Refs are the first line of defense when it comes to fighter safety.

UFC president Dana White does reasonably well in limiting his referee bashing. This is important so that a ref can do his or her job without a hovering fear of reprisal and public ridicule. As we all know, MMA action is lightning fast and does not tolerate slow decision-making, hesitations and second-guessing in the octagon. (Quite unlike what we do in forums and chat rooms).

The UFC properly allows adequate time between weigh-ins and fight time to allow proper hydration, which aids in brain protection.

UFC matchmaker Joe Silva creates fair – not just entertaining – matchups. Fans often would like to see a particular fighter “fed to the wolves,” but ridiculous mismatches are exceedingly rare, and no obvious attempt is made to pad fighters’ records with “tomato cans” or inexperienced fighters – all of which are potentially very dangerous practices.

Safety issues that the UFC could potentially improve upon:

Mandate and provide neurocognitive testing (Impact testing) and management protocol for all fighters.

Mandate use of better mouth guards that properly align the TMJ to dampen forces transmitted to the brain.

Employ an official medical director to create policies to better address these and other issues.

Preemptively retire fighters that have taken a great deal of punishment and/or multiple concussions over their careers. It is better to retire a fighter a bit too soon than to let him hang around too long. Careers are supposed to end; quality of life is not.

Institute a six-month rule. If a fighter gets knocked out, he will not fight or train with contact for six months (in an attempt to let the fighter’s brain heal). Research is revealing the increased danger of rapid return to contact.

Investigate a means to address weight-cutting problems.

Provide a fund now for brain-injury issues that are likely to arise in the future for retired UFC fighters. The UFC can save some money and start funding/investing the money now so that time will allow the fund to compound and grow because fighters will definitely need it one day.

The UFC and all those involved with MMA should learn from the experiences of other contact athletes and organizations. We should merely look to the NFL, professional boxing and the NHL to learn what to and what not to do with regards to brain safety.

Should we ignore the lessons and information that they paid and continue to so dearly pay for?

Dr. Johnny Benjamin is MMAjunkie.com’s medical columnist and consultant and a noted combat-sports specialist. He is also a member of the Association of Boxing Commissions’ MMA Medical Subcommittee. Dr. Benjamin writes an “Ask the Fight Doc” column every two weeks for MMAjunkie.com. To submit a question for a future column, email him at askthedoc [AT] mmajunkie.com, or share your questions and thoughts in the comments section below. You can find Dr. Benjamin online at www.drjohnnybenjamin.com, and you can read his other sports-related articles at blog.drjohnnybenjamin.com.

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